Official communication outlet of the Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center. Our official press releases and situational responses are found here.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

OCDAC Newsletter June 21, 2005

Dear Friends,

Great news! We're approaching the halfway point with our O.C. Fair
preparation. We need to focus on designing our free ASL books and
decoration materials from this point on. We will be having our live
cam at the fair booth again this year as we did last year. We need
plenty of volunteers to set up and staff our booth.

Our ASL meetup event went off to a good start with 9 people showing
up.

Sad news is that I am picking wind of the same anomalies still going
on with the California Association of the Deaf in which had caused ex-
president Russ Bye to get booted. It seems that Russ Bye had become
another scapegoat like Mark Apodaca. Seems there had been an open
season on seasoned deaf leaders in California. We just need to find
out who is behind all of this.

Our 'Santa Ana Shakedown' project has netted over 550 business inside
the city of Santa Ana, California that are not in compliance with the
Americans with Disabilities Act. The problem with the enforcement
part is that we can not play the role of an attorney general.
However, we have been communicating with these businesses and
offering them to take an ADA refresher course at our own classroom to
help these businesses become compliant.

OCDAC Communications

-------------< INSIDE NEWS >

Yikkes! We learned from the OC-Fair meeting we have only 2 days to
set our OC-Fair booth. We need a lot of help during those 2 days.
July 6 and 7! We've chosen a mascot for OC-Fair booth this summer.
It's the small Emmett Kelly Jr. "I Love You" figurine!

We have started on the 'Crazy October' planning in which we have
numerous educational and fundraising events packed into a single
month.

If you shop at Albertsons and have a community partners card, please
consider adding your card to our list of supporters. Our goal is
25,000 supporters who shop a Albertsons.

We recycle used cell phones, empty printer and toner cartridges. If
you have any of these to unload from your hands, please send or drop
them at our agency at 2960 Main Street, A100, Irvine, California 92614

ATTENTION DEAF PEOPLE WHO HAVE MYSTERIOUS PROBLEMS WITH THE DISNEY
COMPANY.

We are looking for DEAF People and others who have problems with the
Disney Company:

--apply, and no call back?
--apply, but no interview because deaf/ interpreter issue?
--apply, interview, but no interpreter or captions?
--got job, but then no interpreter for staff meetings?
--you feel punished because after being hired youre excluded from
training's, staff meetings, or other staff events?

(1) NEED YOUR NAME AND (2) ADDRESS (3) and E-mail (4) explanation of
your problem with The Disney Company.

We work with Morse Mehrban who is a rising star in the field of
disability access litigation. Morse needs to know about this no later
than September 4, 2005. Please email ocdac@deafadvocacy.com and
please use 'Disney Problems' in the subject line.

-------------< ADVOCACY NEWS >

Your accessible voting rights are in peril.

Strong opposition to accessible voting is coming from paper trail
supporters who oppose disability access based on their unproven
theories and paranoia. Some examples: In the 2004 election, nearly
half of all Californians were able to vote on accessible voting
machines; as of July 1, 2005, California state law prevents continued
use of these accessible voting machines. One Florida county has
removed accessible voting machines from polling places. Another just
cancelled a contract for the purchase of accessible voting machines.
Similar backlash efforts are underway in every state.
The Senate Rules Committee is holding a hearing on Help America Vote
Act (HAVA) implementation, accessible voting, and the paper trail.
Common Cause and the National Association of Counties are among the
groups demanding that HAVA be reopened and that this Januarys
deadline for one accessible voting machine in every polling place be
postponed. Other organizations, like Verified Voting, are demanding
that all accessible voting machines be banned and that voting be
conducted only with paper.

What does it mean? It means that the purchase of accessible voting
systems wouldnt be required. It means that youll have live with
inaccessible polling places. It means that a fundamental part of
political power the right to vote secretly and independently--will be
taken away from the nations largest minoritythe same minority that
isnt counted in the exit polls.

Your ability to vote without barriers is what you stand to lose if
you do not attend this Senate hearing. The hearing is on June 21,
from 10am-12pm, in Senate Russell Office Building, Room 301, titled
Voter Verification in the Federal Elections Process. The accessible
entrance to the building is at the corner of Delaware and
Constitution, on the Delaware Avenue side. Allow at least 30 minutes
to get to through security and to get to Room 301. I have requested
CART, a sign language interpreter, disks of the hearing testimony,
and seating accommodations for people who use wheelchairs. If you
need additional accommodations, contact Sue Wright with the Senate
Rules Committee at 202-224-2536.

"We joke about it," said Erin O'Neill. "I say 'you are going to make
me more deaf if you scream.' It's really funny. We were in a huddle
and I said 'I'm deaf so you have to be really loud.' They
said, 'that's OK, we have big mouths, don't worry.' They are very
funny."

-------------< COMMUNITY BULLHORN >

PRESS RELEASE – June 14, 2005

From: www.deafsportlawsuit.com

POLAND AND SPAIN SUSPENDED FROM DEAF SPORTS IN EUROPE

By Rafael PINKHASOV PINCHAS, CISS/Deaflympics Ombudsman

New York, USA – The administration of the CISS/Deaflympics (
"CISS" )
was - and still is - unable to do what the leaders of the European
Deaf Sports Organization ( "EDSO" ) were able to do.

The EDSO has, by strictly observing and enforcing its
organization's
Regulations, suspended its two members – national sports
associations
of Poland and Spain – from taking part in any sports competitions
in
the region for failure to pay their respective membership dues.

According to a reliable source, Poland owes to the EDSO 5,938.00
Euros, while Spain – 2536.00 Euros.

At the current money exchange rate one Euro is roughly equal to $USA
1.21.

Because Poland did not pay its debt to the EDSO, last year its
men's
national basketball team was banned from participating at the
European championship held in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Unlike the EDSO, the leaders of the CISS have not apparently learned
anything yet in order to run its business in an appropriate, fair and
professional manner.

In the last five years, the CISS has committed a mountain of rule
violations in its legal system.

The CISS, for instance, by ignoring its own rules, has allowed a
number of deaf national sports associations, especially the USA Deaf
Sports Federation – the Number One Violator of the CISS system,
to
take part at the 2001, 2003 and 2005 Deaflympic Games. In addition,
certain representatives of the USA Deaf Sports Federation
were "elected" and/or "appointed" to various
high-level CISS
positions in the unconstitutional, nefarious and illegitimate manner.
For details, read

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update20.html

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update23.html

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update25.html

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update36.html

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update64.htm

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update67.htm

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update73.htm

Furthermore, the CISS has been engaged in the policies of
mismanagement, stagnation, bias, cronyism, favoritism and election
fraud.

The CISS has also as recently as this past January demonstrated its
non-cooperation with its affiliated member such as the EDSO.

As an act of non-cooperation and non-solidarity with the EDSO, the
still anarchically and incompetently managed CISS administration
allowed both delegations of Poland ( 32 athletes and officials ) and
Spain ( 6 athletes and officials ) to officially take part at the
recently-concluded 20th Deaflympic Summer Games held in Melbourne,
Australia.

The EDSO is one of the four most important regional affiliates to the
CISS.

Commented one high-ranking EDSO official,

"In 2004 the CISS had problem with the national sports
association of
Italy ( FISS vs. CSSI ). As a result, the Italians got suspended by
the CISS and the CISS, therefore, asked the EDSO to cancel the
European championship in Handball in Palermo, Italy.

The EDSO cooperated by agreeing to fulfill this request by the CISS.
Now, the EDSO is felt very offended by the CISS administration's
recent action because they permitted our EDSO's suspended members
–
Poland and Spain – to take part at the 2005 Games in Australia.
It is
unbelievable that Poland, for example, on the one side, found a
substantial amount of money to send its 32-member delegation to a far
away nation of Australia for the Games competitions, while, on the
other side, they found no money to pay off their outstanding debts to
the EDSO!"

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who want to be on the top of the .WS cyber real estate market.
Hearing people can participate as the reseller link also has a video
for them. Begin your journey toward self-sufficiency by sending a
blank email to deaf@activist.com and it will auto-reply back to you
with information about this fantastic program. And you will get
another email message a few days later with the full explanation of
the program.

-------------< EPILOG >

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Orange County Deaf Advocacy Center is a community based organization
that puts people with disabilities first in their advocacy for equal
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